July 2017 – The Storey Tellerhttp://thestoreyteller.online
To Educate and Irritate with what’s really going on in Storey County.Sat, 11 Aug 2018 15:43:52 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8http://thestoreyteller.online/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/cropped-StoreyTeller-Logo-32x32.pngJuly 2017 – The Storey Tellerhttp://thestoreyteller.online
3232Battle Born Consulting To Save Storey County 5 Million Dollars in 2017-2018http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/29/battle-born-consulting-to-save-storey-county-5-million-dollars-in-2018/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/29/battle-born-consulting-to-save-storey-county-5-million-dollars-in-2018/#commentsSun, 30 Jul 2017 04:54:52 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1372The Storey Teller has learned that retired Fire Chief and brand new business tycoon Gary Hames is executing a brilliant plan to save county taxpayers an estimated $5,000,000 dollars in the current fiscal year 2017-2018. Starting with his newly privately contracted position of Community Development Director, Hames is requiring all Storey County Community Development employees …

]]>The Storey Teller has learned that retired Fire Chief and brand new business tycoon Gary Hames is executing a brilliant plan to save county taxpayers an estimated $5,000,000 dollars in the current fiscal year 2017-2018.

Starting with his newly privately contracted position of Community Development Director, Hames is requiring all Storey County Community Development employees to quit their jobs, remove themselves from the PERS ranks and join the ranks of his freshly minted company: Battle Born Consulting.

“The brilliance of this move is stunning because of it’s simplicity. We see the taxpayers of Storey County getting behind this 110%.” explained soon to be former County Employee Pat Whitten. “The County will give Battle Born all the vehicles, cell phones, office furniture and fixtures, phone systems, offices, buildings and everything else Battle Born Consulting needs to conduct business under this expanded contract. Since we have already paid for these assets, we can simply transfer them to Battle Born’s personal property asset list. Once we do this, we can start collecting taxes on these assets. This means that not only do we save 5 million on all that retirement and medical insurance, but we can start collecting taxes on the property Storey County Taxpayers have purchased in the past. Back in my Bank of America days, we used to call this a win-win-win-win-win-win situation.”

According to Battle Born Consulting CEO-CFO-CIO-Chief-Fry-Cook-Bottle-Washer Gary Hames, “We are really excited to save Storey County Taxpayers mountains of money with this move. The transition will start in Community Development and will take on other departments incrementally. Our second phase will be the Sheriff’s Office. All the Deputies are super excited to lose their 100% vested PERS accounts and replace them with our Battle Born Special Merit Patch and Spy Code Decoder Ring retirement plan. While the Deputies might only get about half of what they could have gotten upon retirement with PERS, they will have to be employed with Battle Born for a period of 5 years to become 50% vested and ten years to become fully vested. And they get the cool Deputy Decoder Ring. Should they quit before the vesting period, their forfeited funds will be distributed equally among the rest of the employees. Another Win Win Win!”

But it doesn’t stop there…

“All former county employees who were covered by the costly top shelf health insurance will now qualify Medicaid. This will transfer the burden from the few Storey County Taxpayer to the many Federal Taxpayers. Bam! – Win!”, Hames explained.

Local 405 Union Chapter President Joe Mahmah praised the move as well. “Frankly, we have grown weary in recent months of dealing with the 150+ union members in Storey County. They represent a huge burden on our staff and we can’t wait for them to move off our union roster and become at will employees. We agree with Whitten and Hames; Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!“

Austin Osborne noted there may be some reluctance for employees who currently enjoy the cushy benefits and sweet retirement packages to fully embrace the move: “We expect some people to balk at the idea (of leaving Storey County employment) but frankly we don’t really care. Fun Fact: If they don’t like the idea of leaving the employ of Storey County and becoming Battle Born Consulting employees, they can quit. In fact we encourage them to leave. We only want true “Take One For The Team Storey” players to make the transition to “Team Battle Born Consulting” players. We don’t have room on our brand new short bus for crybabies, whiners and trouble makers.”

Commissioner Jack McGuffey added “I know I speak for my fellow County Commissioners when I say while we haven’t really penciled this all the way out, I’m pretty sure this is a good idea.”

The Storey Teller enthusiastically supports the move which represents a potential $ 5,000,000 savings for taxpayers this calendar year. And by stripping county employees of their retirement and all those expensive perks and union protections, they will finally be forced to make it in the real world.

You know, the one where the rest of us live.

We will keep you updated on this spectacular story as it continues to develop!

Stay tuned. ————- For those of you who live in Rio Linda and think the above is a factual article, please recalibrate your sarcas-o-meter and read it again.

Fun Actual Fact: In the calendar year 2016, Storey County spent $ 9,230,073 in payroll and an astonishing $ 4,617,684 in retirement and health and benefit perks. That’s 50% of the payroll and as the old blues tune suggests, is “Nice Work if you can get it”…

And On a Very Serious Note….

Our sources close to the Community Development Department confirm that under the direction of Gary Hames and Pat Whitten, plans are indeed underway to move the entire Community Development Department roster into the private employ of the Battle Born Consulting. The plan has employees to be removed from County employ, lose their PERS retirement and health benefits and receive new at will employment contract. Or they can leave.

Those of you who find this un-freaking-believable (like the people at TESLA and SWITCH) are encouraged to contact our “County Management” using the phone numbers and email addresses below.

Tell them The Teller sent you…

Keep your county watchdog hungry – toss him a bone!

Support thestoreyteller.online

Pat Whitten – County Manager

pwhitten@storeycounty.org

775-847-0968

Austin Osborne – Assistant County Manager, Human Resources Manager, Planning Director and whatever else Pat has him doing. Austin has the most hats of any working person in Storey County. Remind me why the planning director isn’t working under this new contractor at the County Development Office? Oh, wait..

]]>The Storey County Planning Commission has a seat available with a vacancy in the Highlands occurring recently. From Storey County:

STOREY COUNTY PUBLIC NOTICEPLANNING COMMISSIONER VACANCYPrecinct 5 (Highlands District)Position: Storey County Planning Commissioner to represent Precinct 5 (Highlands including Virginia City Highlands, Highlands Ranches, and Virginia Ranches). All interested parties must live within this voting district. The Planning Commission is an advisory body to the Board of County Commissioners. It is responsible for directing the short- and long-range growth and development of the county through maintenance and implementation of the county master plan, zoning ordinances, and other applicable land-use policies. It is composed of seven commissioners who serve two or more times per month on the body and who are compensated pursuant to NRS 278.040. Each commissioner is appointed by the Board of County Commissioners to serve at its pleasure for a four year term with possible re-appointment following expiration of the term.Preferred Qualifications: A Planning Commissioner’s primary duty is to make land-use decisions that are consistent with the policies and plans, including the county master plan, formally adopted by the Board of County Commissioners. Therefore, the first priority of a Planning Commissioner is to have strong decision-making skills and develop knowledge of county policies and applicable Nevada Revised Statutes. It is not critical to have training in the fields of planning, architecture, law, civil engineering, geology, economics, or demography; these are skills that are available to the commissioner from staff, consultants, and applicants. The Planning Commissioner’s job is to weigh input given in staff reports and other professional reports, meeting testimonies, and other correspondence. A Planning Commissioner is like a judge who renders decisions based on the testimony of experts and others who appear as witnesses in a trial. Minimum qualifications of a Planning Commissioner include: a willingness and ability to research and report on issues, programs, and policies related to local land-use matters; ability to attend afternoon and night meetings on a regular basis; ability to sustain harmonious working relationships with commission members, the Board of County Commissioners, staff, residents, applicants, and the public; ability to act within the ethical standards set forth by NRS and NAC; and willingness to expand knowledge related to land-use planning. The new-appointee must successfully pass a criminal background investigation.Letter of Interest: All interested parties must submit a letter of interest showing qualifications and reason for applying for the appointment. An official job application is not necessary.Closing Date: Letters of interest (originals) must be received by the Storey County Human Resources Office, Storey County Courthouse, 26 South “B” Street (P.O. Box 176), Virginia City, NV 89440 by 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 9, 2017. Please contact 775.847.0968 for further questions.Tentative Appointment Date: The Board of County Commissioners may consider letters of interest at its August 15, 2015, regularly scheduled meeting. Applicants may be asked to speak and should attend.Storey County is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Posting dates: 07/24/17 – 08/09/17

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/27/storey-county-planning-commission-seat-available/feed/0It’s Easier to Lower Taxes Than it is to Raise Them – In Fantasy Landhttp://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/21/easier-lower-taxes-raise-fantasy-land/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/21/easier-lower-taxes-raise-fantasy-land/#respondSat, 22 Jul 2017 06:07:42 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1352Sadly, here is the real world, we have not seen an actual tax rollback on our planet in our lifetime. You may hear of them discussed in Washington D.C. or over intoxicating discussions at the hookah bar. All of this talk is pure fantasy; every day of every month of every year our taxes go …

]]>Dogs, Ponies and Flying Marionettes will all be at the Tax Rollback Show.

Sadly, here is the real world, we have not seen an actual tax rollback on our planet in our lifetime. You may hear of them discussed in Washington D.C. or over intoxicating discussions at the hookah bar. All of this talk is pure fantasy; every day of every month of every year our taxes go up. And up.

Up. Not. Down.

On June 20th, Commissioner Jack McGuffey hopped up on his soap box and pounded his demand we roll back the taxes. As we reported earlier, this was pure showmanship. Everyone in attendance knew there was exactly zero chance of a TRIC induced tax rollback. Still, a “Special Meeting” was called to see if the county leaders could wish hard enough for the magical event to come true.

It did not.

In her report of the latest Storey County Commissioners meeting held on July 18th, Nicole Barde delivers her usual excellent reporting of the high and low lights of the meeting.

Her dead-on-point assessment of the Tax-Roll-Back-Re-Electioneering-Parade-with-Dogs-and-Ponies-and-Cake-and-Ice-Cream-For-Everyone-Show reveals how this exercise will amount to a whole lot of activity and zero in the results department.

From Nicole Barde of the BardeBlog:

Summary of the July 18, 2017 Storey County Commission meeting

WITH THE PROCLAMATION THAT “IT’S EASIER TO LOWER TAXES THAN TO RAISE THEM” THE BRAKES HAVE BEEN APPLIED TO THE RUNAWAY TRAIN THAT IS THE “IMMEDIATE TAX REBATE BECAUSE I PROMISED” AS DECLARED BY COMMISSIONER JACK MCGUFFEY.

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/21/easier-lower-taxes-raise-fantasy-land/feed/0Comstock Classics Car Show a Hit!http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/19/comstock-classics-car-show-hit/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/19/comstock-classics-car-show-hit/#respondThu, 20 Jul 2017 01:10:20 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1322 We attended the Fifth Annusal Comstock Classics Car Show over the weekend and enjoyed Classic American (and Foreign) Metal from days gone by. There were well over a hundred fully restored cars and some very nice original gems. Many groups sold items to raise funds for various causes as there were perhaps a thousand …

We attended the Fifth Annusal Comstock Classics Car Show over the weekend and enjoyed Classic American (and Foreign) Metal from days gone by. There were well over a hundred fully restored cars and some very nice original gems. Many groups sold items to raise funds for various causes as there were perhaps a thousand people who stopped in to enjoy the cars.

Comstock Eagles Aerie #523 raised $430 selling hand made one of a kind blankets with car themes. “We support many organizations including national charities like the Jimmy Durante Fund, Max Baer Fund. We also focus on local giving including the Senior Center and High School Scholarship.” explained Jim Hindle. The Eagles meet on the second Wednesday of every month at the miners hall 7:00.

The Comstock Classics Car Club meets on the third Tuesday of every month inside the man caves of members. Check them out at www.comstockclassics.com.

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/19/comstock-classics-car-show-hit/feed/0Nevada Rural Healthcare to suffer under proposed TrumpCare 4.0http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/17/nevada-rural-healthcare-suffer-proposed-trumpcare-4-0/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/17/nevada-rural-healthcare-suffer-proposed-trumpcare-4-0/#commentsMon, 17 Jul 2017 21:31:05 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1318The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein reported today about the crushing impact that the new TrumpCare 4.0 plan would have on rural Nevada. It is ironic that the counties who voted against Clinton and are vocal detractors of ObamaCare are the ones most adversely affected by the potential new “Healthcare” plan on the horizon. In …

]]>The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein reported today about the crushing impact that the new TrumpCare 4.0 plan would have on rural Nevada. It is ironic that the counties who voted against Clinton and are vocal detractors of ObamaCare are the ones most adversely affected by the potential new “Healthcare” plan on the horizon.

In this speck of high desert, along a stretch of highway that Life magazine once called the loneliest road in America, the only doctor in town comes just one day a week. In the past few years, though, health insurance has arrived in force.

The county that includes Silver Springs now has more than 3,500 additional residents on Medicaid, because Nevada’s governor was the first Republican in the country to expand the program through the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 1,400 others have private plans through the law and the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange.

Incomplete as it is, with many still falling through the cracks, such progress encouraged the health system that runs a little outpost in town to invest here in long-distance medicine. The new coverage has paid for back surgeries and brain surgeries for people who otherwise would have been left broke or unhealed.

Yet 2,600 miles away, what Congress is now doing — or not doing — imperils these two strands of insurance that lately have cut Nevada’s uninsured population by half. Republican lawmakers would start to erase the money that props up Medicaid’s expansion. And even with a GOP health-care plan teetering in the Senate, months of uncertainty about the ACA’s future have heightened insurers’ qualms in Nevada about whether its marketplace is a financially safe space to be.

The sole company that had been expected to remain on the state exchange in Lyon County and Nevada’s 13 other rural counties announced otherwise last month and will be gone by January. Unless Anthem or another insurer reverses course, 8,000 people across hundreds of miles will be left without any ACA insurer next year — by far the largest such bare patch in the nation.

“In a place where health care was already a disaster,” said Shaun Griffin, a local poet and community activist, “it’s criminal that this is happening.”

The stakes in this land of dusty winds and scarce jobs attest to the special vulnerability of rural communities to the health-care politics of Washington. The toehold that insurance has gained, even here in strong Trump country, suggestswhy Nevada Sen. Dean Heller became an early, overt critic of what his Republican Party leaders want to do. It also explains why even sustained pressure from the White House has not altered Gov. Brian Sandoval’s opposition to the Senate’s bill.

Robert Garcia practices his roping skills every evening outside his mobile home in Silver Springs, Nev. Garcia competed in rodeos until he was thrown from a horse a few years ago. Not until he got onto Medicaid was he able to have back surgery for the injury. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

In Silver Springs, where finding medical care is iffy in the best of circumstances, an insurance card isn’t a guarantee. But it is a leg up.

Robert Garcia was living in his horse trailer with three crushed discs in his back when a county caseworker told him that, because the state’s rules had changed with the ACA, he could get onto Medicaid.

Garcia used to earn about $50,000 a year doing electrical work at a nearby gypsum mine. He lost his insurance when he was laid off in 2011. His marriage fell apart. Rodeo had been his passion since he was a boy, and he moved into the trailer, filled with championship buckles and saddles, that carried him and his horses to competitions. It had a generator for electricity, and Garcia parked it on different friends’ land, taking showers from hoses outside in the dark.

He picked up money by breaking horses until the day a young mustang with a fiery spirit got spooked and lurched, throwing the cowboy off its left side. He landed on his neck. Despite the pain, he kept riding and roping for another month before paying for an X-ray. He couldn’t afford the surgery he needed.

In 2015, a woman at the local food pantry took him to the county’s health and human services branch in Silver Springs. There he got onto Medicaid. After more rounds of doctors, he had surgery last year at a Reno hospital.

But in the kind of seesawing scraping-by that is common here, the Social Security disability benefits for which Garcia was finally approved in April meant he could afford to rent a mobile home. But he no longer qualified for Medicaid — which meant no return to the doctor to see whether he could get back on a horse. At 50, with a bad knee, fingers still numb from the fall and anxiety, he now is waiting on a health plan through the state exchange. The coverage may be fleeting.

“That would devastate me,” he said. “I don’t know what I would do.”

‘Sign me up’

Local residents wait to be checked in at the Silver Stage Food Pantry, which also offers periodic health education and screenings. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Straddling U.S. Route 50 in a mountain-ringed valley studded with saltbush, Silver Springs sits about an hour from the neon of Reno and even less from the state capitol building in Carson City. It is not as remote as Nevada’s huge frontier counties, where the nearest hospital can be hours away.

Still, it is rural enough that Bret Bellard, the family doctor who works at Renown Health’s clinic on Mondays, sees patients bitten by their donkey or kicked by their goat, along with diabetes and addictions. Wild horses run through the clinic’s parking lot.

The area’s big moments were during the Pony Express and gold rush days. Today, the economic glitter of a Tesla Gigafactory under construction less than an hour away has stoked hopes that good jobs might spill down a road being built from Route 50.

They are pipe dreams for now. The Silver Strike Casino and a Nugget Casino branch each offer some jobs. So do a Family Dollar and Dollar General, the only stores. With no local grocery, the two gas stations’ food marts are the only places to buy even a carton of milk; the Silver Stage Food Pantry, which serves the town and tinier Stagecoach just to the west, is trying to foster community gardening.

Wild horses graze between the two casinos along U.S. Route 50 in Silver Springs. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

In this environment, the cinder block clinic that had been here for decades called it quits during the Great Recession. Renown, a Reno-based nonprofit, took over in 2008 and managed to get it federally certified as a rural health clinic. Since attracting health-care professionals to the area is hard, the designation means a young nurse practitioner and a physician assistant can work to help repay student loans. This year, Renown installed a telehealth system so that patients with bad hearts or troubled mental health, for example, can sit in an exam room and talk with a doctor via a computer screen.

The federal label also allows the clinic the luxury of seeing any patient who can get an appointment, no matter how much they can pay. But Renown’s president, Anthony Slonim, is pragmatic about what could happen if the Senate Republicans’ Better Care Reconciliation Act became law. “None of us are making money in the rural environment, trust me,” Slonim said. “If more people become uninsured, expenses will go up and revenue will go down. . . . It gets increasingly challenging for us to sustain those practices. People’s care will suffer.”

The scarcity of health services dovetails with an individualistic streak that has long coursed through the West. Yet even the most independent at times need help.

Tom Lovelace, who has a landscaping business in Silver Springs, didn’t vote in the last election. He says he doesn’t believe in government, though he thinks Trump is “cool.” He also doesn’t like the idea of health insurance — just take care of yourself or tough it out.

Still, Lovelace reflects the realities plumbed by a recent Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey, which found that most rural Americans consider Medicaid very important to their communities — including nearly three people in five who voted for Trump.

Tom Lovelace works on a new garden outside his mobile home in Silver Springs. He never knew he could get health coverage through Medicaid until after surgery for an aneurysm. He signed up despite his anti-government views. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Rockie Rossberg, 4, is called in for dinner by her mother, Hoppie Rossberg, at their double wide mobile home and small ranch in Silver Springs, Nev. Hoppie Rossberg believes fewer Medicaid entitlements would be better for the economy and the country. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

The day after he turned 30 in 2014, Lovelace woke up at 4 a.m., sweaty, his speech slurred. He told his customers he thought he’d had a stroke. He was living in Carson City at the time, and, two weeks later, a friend took him to an emergency room. He got an MRI but left before finding out the results.

The next month, he had an awful headache one day and started to see double, then triple. When he went back to the emergency room, the doctor told him he was relieved to see him. He had an aneurysm, a weakened spot in a blood vessel in his brain. At Renown’s hospital in Reno, he had it repaired and — uninsured — received a $99,000 bill.

Nearly three months later, as Lovelace was signing up for food stamps, a worker at the welfare office asked whether he wanted to get Medicaid. He was surprised. He knew of it as help for his three kids — their names tattooed on his arms and chest — and their mothers. Not for a guy like him.

In Dayton, Nev., Jenny Claypool lost Medicaid coverage after she got a small raise but was able to sign up for a health plan on the state insurance exchange. She worries that she’ll lose that, too, because her insurer is pulling out of the local market next year. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

‘Why do we have to change?’

On June 27, the governor sent a letter to all four insurers that have been selling health plans through the state’s ACA marketplace this year and are part of Nevada’s managed-care Medicaid in its urban areas. “The reduced footprint of carriers on the exchange,” Sandoval wrote, “is a national embarrassment for a state that has made great strides in reducing our uninsured population.” He asked them to “find a . . . solution.”

The governor and his chief of staff, for years Nevada’s health secretary, waited three days before Sandoval sent another letter saying he was “disappointed” in the insurers and summoning them to his office Tuesday to try to hammer out a plan.

The prospect of losing ACA coverage in every rural county is a reversal of fortune for a state whose embrace of the 2010 health-care law has brought dramatic results. Before the ACA, 23 percent of Nevadans were uninsured, one of the worst rates in the country. Today, it is 12 percent.

Mike Willden, the chief of staff, said officials are talking with the Trump administration about how much it can bend the ACA’s rules to ward off the exchange’s rural meltdown next year. Perhaps they could let people enroll in the health plans available in Reno and Las Vegas, though their doctors would be farther away. Perhaps the state’s four ACA regions could be collapsed into one, so that any insurer wanting to stay in the urban areas would have to sell health plans in the rural places, too. And a study is going to look at a novel strategy endorsed this spring by the legislature — letting any Nevadan pay to join a Medicaid health plan.

No one knows whether any of these ideas might work.

In the meantime, Sandoval, like Nevada’s senior U.S. senator, has been speaking out against what his fellow Republicans are trying to do in Washington. The state has documented ways the expanded insurance has improved residents’ well-being, especially in access to mental health care.

“If it is working in Nevada,” Willden asked, “why do we have to change?”

Over at the Silver State exchange, Executive Director Heather Korbulic is already worrying about what will happen this winter to people who suddenly may be without coverage in counties such as Lyon.

“It’s such a tenuous time,” she said. “It’s not that we are not trying. . . . But insurers in Nevada have been resistant to these rural counties for a very long time.”

Old cars, artifacts and more sit on a hillside in Dayton that locals call “The Yard.” (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Health/Science alerts

Breaking news on health, science and the environment.

It was the 5 p.m. news on KOLO-8 out of Reno that told Jenny Claypool her new health plan is going away next year.

“What!?” she exclaimed. Despite her job with a community health group and $350 in a monthly insurance subsidy through the ACA, Claypool relies on help from her 78-year-old mother in California to afford the $300 she still must pay in premiums every month. Only ACA coverage comes with subsidies.

Fifty-one and divorced for a decade, she lives in Dayton, a bit west of Silver Springs. She had insurance when she worked for the county school system, but then she changed jobs and went several years without any. Her mental health is fragile — bipolar and borderline personality disorder. During one bad spell, she went to an emergency room in Carson City, which transferred her to a state hospital.

When Claypool heard in 2014 that Medicaid was expanding, she signed up right away, started therapy and began filling her prescriptions at the pharmacy inside the Smith’s grocery store in Dayton, just like anyone else. Last year, Medicaid paid for surgery to repair a tear in her hip. Last fall, she became ineligible for the program after she got a raise at work that lifted her pay from $15 an hour to $17. She turned to the exchange, picking a health plan called Anthem Silver Pathway. The plan will be gone Jan. 1.

That coverage “is a huge sense of security,” Claypool said. “I am going to be out there with nothing.”

Amy Goldstein is The Washington Post’s national health-care policy writer. During her 30 years at The Post, her stories have taken her from homeless shelters to Air Force One, often focused on the intersection of politics and public policy. She is the author of the book, Janesville: An American Story.

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/17/nevada-rural-healthcare-suffer-proposed-trumpcare-4-0/feed/5Second Annual Wild Horse Conference held at TRIChttp://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/17/second-annual-wild-horse-conference-held-at-tric/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/17/second-annual-wild-horse-conference-held-at-tric/#respondMon, 17 Jul 2017 16:00:52 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1300Last Friday TRIC principal and Storey County Commissioner Lance Gilman and the TRI Center hosted a group of wildlife Wild Horse Advocates, representatives from the Nevada Department of Agriculture and approximately twelve TRIC Businesses for the second annual Wild Horse Conference. TRIC project Manager Kris Thompson led the meeting and defined the purpose of the …

]]>Last Friday TRIC principal and Storey County Commissioner Lance Gilman and the TRI Center hosted a group of wildlife Wild Horse Advocates, representatives from the Nevada Department of Agriculture and approximately twelve TRIC Businesses for the second annual Wild Horse Conference.

TRIC project Manager Kris Thompson led the meeting and defined the purpose of the meeting as providing information about the status of TRIC’s horse population as well as to give an update on this year’s focus which is around water and expanding water resources for the TRIC wildlife which includes both the horses and the big horn sheep.

At the end of the meeting a request went out to the participating TRIC companies to consider sponsoring special watering stations for the horses and other wildlife as part of an overall strategy to sustain the herds and to draw the horses deeper into TRIC lands where they will be less of a public safety issue.

Kris Thompson said that TRIC is trying to make its development and build-out a positive for the horses insomuch as TRIC has the space for the horses and plans to be strategic with its placement of water stations. He stressed that environmental support is good for business but needs the financial support of the TRIC companies. He asked the managers at the meeting to be the advocates within their companies to help secure funding for the building and maintenance of several new watering stations. The cost for one station is about $12,000 the first year. Lance Gilman announced that TRIC had cut a check as the first sponsor for the first new watering station.

Both Kris Thompson and Lance Gilman spoke about how important the wild horses are to TRIC since they are part of the TRIC and the Storey County brand. Lance stated that the horses are directly connected to both our tourism and business recruitment efforts. While acknowledging that the horses can be a public safety hazard if not properly managed Lance went on to describe that they represent a wild freedom and ruggedness that people associate with the West and stressed the importance of their role in attracting people to the area.

Lance further stated that since TRIC is on the world stage that the TRIC companies have the opportunity to make a real difference in wildlife preservation. He said that the decisions made will be noticed and that it is a chance to do some leading edge work around how to successfully manage and balance the needs of our wildlife and the needs of growing development.

The meeting was very timely this year given the recent House Appropriations Committee “no” vote on the Department of Agriculture spending Bill amendment to keep horse slaughter out of the U.S. If this vote holds thru the final budget it potentially paves the way for an increased rate of “disposal” of the approximately 50,000 horses currently in long and short term round-up pens across Nevada and the U.S.

Lance Gilman stated his opposition to the action and said that both he and Kris Thompson had called Congressman Mark Amodei’s office to voice their concerns. Amodei is the Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee who voted no, a vote for slaughter.

Below is a summary of the presentations:

Doug Faris and Range Marshal Chris Miller from the Nevada Dept. of Agriculture (NDA) presented the various NRS’s which govern the management of the horses. As with last year’s presentation the NDA stressed that from a legal standpoint and by legal definition the local horse population was not wild at all but stray and feral and not protected under the “Wild Horse and Burros Act”. The NDA has the responsibility for the process and logistics of managing the horses from a public safety standpoint. Addressing nuisance horses and controlling the horse population thru removal from the range and sometimes sale to killer buyers is one of the methods that they have used in the past. They have several cooperative agreements with local horse groups as sub-contractors, to work issues relating to diversionary feeding, contraception, removal, and adoption of these horses.

Doug provided some statistics noting that Nevada has about 35,000 wild horses and that 2,000 of those are in the Virginia Range, an area of about 400 square miles. Additionally, he showed a chart illustrating that the Virginia Range horse population increased from 1650 horses in 2008 to 1959 horses in 2014. This increase in the horse population isn’t sustainable especially with a shrinking habitat as well as a decrease in natural predators to cull the herds.

There is another horse count scheduled for 2018.

Doug also described the reporting process for horse and livestock incidents involving injured or deceased animals as well as immediate threats or accidents involving human injuries. Doug introduced Willis Lamm with Lyon County Large Animal Rescue as his main contact for a variety of horse related issues specifically the removal and relocation of nuisance horses and the euthanizing of disabled animals.

Lacy J Dalton, Chairperson of the Let ‘em Run Foundation, got up to praise Willis’s efforts as the only resource that responds to serious horse issues and to alert people to the fact that his ability to continue to perform this invaluable task will be hampered by his lack of working equipment, trained volunteers and funds. She asked that they consider supporting his efforts financially so that he can continue to do this very important work.

There was agreement in the room that there needs to be mitigation efforts aimed at diverting the horses away from the highways so as not to cause public safety issues. One of the mitigation methods is the strategic placement of the water. Lance said that there was water all over TRIC and that those locations were magnets drawing the horses into congested areas. The watering stations need to be relocated farther away from the congested areas.

Deniz Bolbol from the American Wild Horse Campaign gave an update on the contraceptive darting program which is part of the Co-operative Agreement with the NDA. She reported that they have surpassed the goals of the agreement by having identified and catalogued over 800 horses and having darted over 400 horses. Additionally, she stated that this contraceptive approach is the largest I the world with about 3000 horses being served.

Seth Alexander from Ames Construction who is building the USA Parkway project reported that out of the $80 million dollar budget to build the Parkway over $5 million has been designated for wildlife protection in the form of underpasses, fencing, cattle guards and other design methods to protect both people and horses on the Parkway.

Mickey Hazelwood from the Nature conservancy provided a status of a few of the wetlands projects that the Conservancy has been involved in as well as a description of the water “guzzlers” that they have in place for the wildlife. These “guzzlers” cost between $40-50,000 to build and install and they are not designed for the horses. They do however attract the horses and that creates issues for the wildlife that they are intended for and for the horses who are drawn closer to the highway and pose a public safety issue.

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/17/second-annual-wild-horse-conference-held-at-tric/feed/0Comedy Play comes to Pipers Opera House in Augusthttp://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/16/comedy-play-comes-pipers-opera-house-august/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/16/comedy-play-comes-pipers-opera-house-august/#respondMon, 17 Jul 2017 05:34:22 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1297The post Comedy Play comes to Pipers Opera House in August appeared first on The Storey Teller.
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]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/16/comedy-play-comes-pipers-opera-house-august/feed/0Bike Safety Rodeo for Kids Tuesday July 18th on the Comstockhttp://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/16/bike-safety-rodeo-kids-tuesday-july-18th-comstock/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/16/bike-safety-rodeo-kids-tuesday-july-18th-comstock/#respondMon, 17 Jul 2017 05:23:57 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1292SILVER CITY, NEVADA— Western Safe Routes to Schools will offer a free bike safety rodeo for ages 5-12 on Tuesday, July 18th, 2017 from 10am to noon at the Silver City basketball court (next to the town park and School House/community center at 385 High Street). Kids will learn road rules and safety, and participate …

SILVER CITY, NEVADA— Western Safe Routes to Schools will offer a free bike safety rodeo for ages 5-12 on Tuesday, July 18th, 2017 from 10am to noon at the Silver City basketball court (next to the town park and School House/community center at 385 High Street).

Kids will learn road rules and safety, and participate in fun bike maneuvers and exercises. They’ll receive new bike helmets if they do not have one yet.

The event is part of the town’s annual free summer program and is held in partnership with Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties.

About the Silver City Summer Program: Each summer since 2003, the historic Comstock community of Silver City has offered free, public arts and science programming.

Location: Silver City is within the historic Comstock district 3 miles from Virginia City, 7 miles from Dayton, and 12 miles from Carson City. Most events take place at the Silver City School House and/or town park.

Contact: For more information about the annual program, contact Quest Lakes at (775) 287-7598.

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/16/bike-safety-rodeo-kids-tuesday-july-18th-comstock/feed/0St. Mary’s Art Center Has A New Lookhttp://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/10/st-marys-art-center-new-look/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/10/st-marys-art-center-new-look/#respondMon, 10 Jul 2017 16:27:12 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1275This press release from the extra wonderful Executive Director of the St. Mary’s Art Center A. Perry showcases the extra wonderful facelift bestowed upon the former hospital. Mad props to Jason Van Havel’s team and Storey County for this magnificent effort. If you haven’t yet taken the time to visit St. Mary’s this year, what …

]]>This press release from the extra wonderful Executive Director of the St. Mary’s Art Center A. Perry showcases the extra wonderful facelift bestowed upon the former hospital.

Mad props to Jason Van Havel’s team and Storey County for this magnificent effort.

If you haven’t yet taken the time to visit St. Mary’s this year, what are you waiting for?

We have had the amazingly good fortune to be the recipients of so much support this past year. Our property looks beautiful and we have enjoyed all of the positive feedback from our guests and visitors. All of this generosity and support allows us to continue to focus on our mission to support arts and culture and the ongoing restoration needs of this historical landmark property.

Storey County generously paved our driveway and it is such an improvement from the gravel! The driveway is truly beautiful and compliments our new landscaping and signage. It will also be much more user friendly during the winter months.

We also have wonderful volunteers and thank each of them so very much. They are simply wonderful and we love them.

A team of people came together to complete our new signage project. Karl Gambrall and Joe Curtis brought in their big equipment to remove our previous entrance signage and prepare the ground for the new sign installation and landscaping. Paula Burris created the graphic design of the new sign, Tom Turman built the signage, Joe Curtis painted the signage, and Tom, Melody Pitts and Beth and Rod Day installed it. We still have a little bit more painting to go for the posts and back of the sign and twining the trumpet vines up them this week, but we love the new look.

We have a gorgeous front entry to the property and also to the building. Shade, herb and wildflower gardens complete the transformation. It took a dedicated team of hard working volunteers to pull this off. Steve Williams designed a stunning landscape design for the grounds and building. Lowes gave us very deep discounts, and Kat was extremely helpful in ordering the plants and supporting the overall project. Steve Williams, Pete Paulos, D Perry, Sherry Bailey, Diane Ciminaro, Sheila and Rocky Hall, Melody Pitts, Darci Allison and Beth Day spent many, many days planting…and planting. Lorie Buice, Pete and Steve, among others, have also generously donated plants or funding to the project.

The maintenance repairs of the property are diligently taken care of by volunteer Melody Pitts. She not only saves us a great deal of money with her experience and volunteered time, but she is very careful with the building and her systems. It is a relief to know we can count on her to help and to do it so carefully.

The Comstock Classics Car Club, TRI and the Mustang Ranch generously donated funds to purchase and install new security sytems. Preferred Networks have been volunteering their time to help design the systems and work on installation of the main system.

Thank you, once again, to all of our volunteers and supporters, both private and business, and Storey County for the time, attention, expertise and generosity. Special thanks is also due to Board Member and Commissioner Jack McGuffey, for being the advocate for the driveway and paving and security system projects. We are grateful and appreciate the ability to now focus on the next chapter and programming.

We are open Friday through Sunday 11am – 4pm. Direct reservations or tour requests are also available. There are many new and exciting things happening this year…please come support the artists and see the changes for yourself. We also have a great new membership program for those who wish to join us.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

– St. Mary’s Art Center Staff & Board of Trustees

Before the Improvements

After the Improvements!

]]>http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/10/st-marys-art-center-new-look/feed/0Mug Shots and Public Shaming. Good or Bad?http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/08/mug-shots-public-shaming-good-bad/
http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/07/08/mug-shots-public-shaming-good-bad/#commentsSat, 08 Jul 2017 18:15:13 +0000http://thestoreyteller.online/?p=1266The Storey Teller has posted Arrest Reports both with and without Mug Shots. In posting Mug Shots, I am conflicted. On the one hand, they serve as a (perhaps ineffective) deterrent; If you don’t want your face to show up in the public shaming gallery you might think twice about embarking on a life of …

]]>The Storey Teller has posted Arrest Reports both with and without Mug Shots.

In posting Mug Shots, I am conflicted.

On the one hand, they serve as a (perhaps ineffective) deterrent; If you don’t want your face to show up in the public shaming gallery you might think twice about embarking on a life of crime. Sheriff Antinoro sends them out specifically for that purpose. If we have a husband beater or thief in our community, the community needs to know about it.

On the other hand, if you got a ticket and you couldn’t pay it because you chose to feed your kids instead of paying the ticket and you couldn’t show up to court to beg for mercy or payments because you would get fired and you got a bench warrant issued for your arrest and your friend got pulled over and you had to hand over your ID for a warrant check you got arrested on the outstanding warrant, is it fair to publish your picture next to the husband beaters and the drunk drivers?

I got into this discussion with my good friend Peter the Dane, a Danish Journalist I met earlier this year while he was traveling the United States writing stories for Denmark’s most widely read magazine. In Denmark, it is illegal to discuss the criminal convictions of anyone not convicted of a felony and getting less than a year sentence. As in you can’t name the person when they get arrested or during the trial. He thinks the idea of public humiliation is morally bankrupt. And he has an excellent point.

The Dilemma.

Here in the States the news media lives by the sensationalist credo “If It Bleeds, It Leads”. I found myself falling victim to this mentality when I first started this news site because I wanted to scoop the local fish wrap. I quickly realized it is laughably easy to scoop the Comical because they print once a week. My iPhone can post at the scene of the news if the mood strikes me, nothing more instantaneous than that. So I decided to take a more judicious approach to breaking news. While mug shots aren’t breaking news, they are sensationalist.

Angela Mann, the last real journalist to cover the Comstock, told me that the Sheriff’s Office Incident report was the first place her readers turned because they wanted to see what the scofflaws were up to in their neighborhood. She said the Mug Shots were part of what titillates the hidden gossip in us all, reading the misfortune of others.

So what do we do?

Do I Post the Mug Shots because I want to give my readers what they want? Even if I know that at least one or two of the sad eyes are victims themselves?

Do I print the arrest details without the picture? Only print the picture of people arrested of Felonies? Simply ignore them altogether.